Love, courage, and apathy on the Jersey Turnpike

The northern stretches of the New Jersey Turnpike are a couple of 5-lane wide strips of gray asphalt meandering through what used to be marshlands but now a dreary concrete landscape. A relentless barrage of trucks, buses, and cars roar along at 75 miles per hour.
This morning, I was one of many barreling along when, in the narrow strip at the base of the concrete barriers, I noticed something out of place. On the left hand side of the highway, a Canada Goose lay dead, it’s feathers ruffing from a passing truck.

Road-kill is always sad for me, but a fairly common sight. But what I saw next was absolutely heart-wrenching and inspiring. A second goose was waddling up to its fallen mate and I could see it vocalizing.

The story was clear. This mated pair were on their way north when one of them was struck, and landed in the median. The other circled around faithfully, and bewildered, returned to its mate's side in great distress.

Whoever can’t see that animals feel emotions is blind. This is a form of love. What else but love could possibly encourage ANY animal to act so thoroughly against it's own self-interests and land in such an obviously unnatural and terrifying patch of pavement?

I understand that accidents happen and organisms die all the time. And I’m certainly not one for anthropomorphizing (projecting human emotions onto animals). I’m one who never feels bad for the gazelle in the jaws of a lion. I see this as nature in action and I celebrate it as much as I would the birth of a giraffe. Death is not a tragedy but simply the price paid for life - and well worth it.

But this was different.

What really made this scene so sad was when I looked around, at all the other drivers with their cigarettes, cell phones, and mega-sized McDonalds cups, not one of the occupants of the black BMW’s, monster SUV’s, or tricked-out Toyotas seemed to care, or even notice the courageous drama unfolding in the dusty turbulence. If I thought I could help I certainly would have. But all I could do was notice, and be thoroughly overwhelmed.

Tonight, one sad bird sleeps alone. I’m sorry goose. And to all geese, I’m sorry for what we’ve done to your habitats. I’m sorry for not being more effective at helping us humans appreciate you. We really do care, we've just lost sight of what's truly important. I’ll try harder. I hope you made it out of New Jersey to find a beautiful and fecund new mate on the breeding grounds in Canada.

Happier times for a mated-pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)